Voodoo Six - The Union – Leeds Rio’s 11 April 2010

Well I’d won a competition to see The Union sound check before the show which meant I had to be at the venue at the ridiculous time of 5:00 only to be told the band were having problem so could we come back at six. So, off to the Wren pub us competition winners went. I had an excellent pint of Leeds Brewery Pale Ale.
Back to Rio’s for 6:00, this time we were let in, but it appears that the problems were with a power supply to the sound desk and the back up was also faulty. To cut a long story short, we didn’t get to see the sound check, but we did get to meet the band and have chat with Luke Morley and co – more on that at the end. We were then ushered out and at that time it looked liked the gig would not go ahead.

When I returned to Rio’s for the third time the sound from outside was a bit more hopeful and eventually the descent size crowd was let in.

First up was Joe McAdam doing a solo acoustic set and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Next up the great Voodoo Six, who I've seen a few times before and liked, but this was the first time I’d seen them with the new singer Luke Purdie. The set was all new material, some of which you can listen to on the internet at their web site. They put in a great performance and Luke is good front man. I’m looking forward to seeing them in the future.

On to the main event, The Union, this was only the second night of the tour and the third show the band had done. I enjoyed the show, but it did seem a little broken up in places with constant changing of guitars etc. I assume that all this will become slicker as the tour progresses. Peter Shoulder is a good front man and had a good voice, and band have some good songs, though I must confess the rockier ones like Step Up to the Plate were more to my liking. It is always difficult when bands have no CD out and only a small of material available on the net, but what I saw tonight would make me come along to see them again.

Set list

1. Easy Street

2. You Know My Name

3. Black Monday

4. Holy Roller

5. Watch the River Flow

6. Lilies

7. The Space Between Us

8. This Time Next Year

9. Saviour

10. Step up to the Plate

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11. Come Rain

12. Proud Mary

Before the show I managed to grab a quick chat with Tony Newton from Voodoo Six. The band are really pleased with new singer Luke Purdie and think that his voice really suits the band, and having seen the set tonight set I would fully agree.

I also managed to have a chat with Geoff Holroyde from Big Linda who is standing in on Drums for The Union on this tour. We discussed the Big Linda CD “I Loved You.” A great CD if you’ve not heard it check it out. Unfortunately singer Rob Alder has now left the band and is a carpenter, but according to Geoff the other there member are continuing to work together on new material though it looks like this won’t be released under the Big Linda name. I for one am looking forward to hearing any new material from that venture.
NH